Chapter 78 : Chapter 78
Volume 2
Chapter 2 : An Excellent Lackey
“It is Muen Campbell!”
Someone whispered it under their breath.
Then the crowd suddenly split apart with perfect uniformity, as if they had been specially trained for it, opening up a path at once.
And there stood Muen, who had been quietly hiding at the very back of the crowd and was just about to slip into the academy.
“Damn.”
Still holding a half-eaten skewer in his hand, Muen looked utterly dumbfounded, like a master thief caught red-handed under a spotlight.
Who shouted that?
How sharp were their eyes?!
Could they not have let him keep a low profile?
Did they not realize that if he showed up in a scene like this, it would be unbearably awkward?
Looking at Aemon and Ariel confronting each other before him, Muen only felt as if his head were about to split open from the pain.
Of all times, it just had to be Ariel, the protagonist he most wanted to avoid.
And of all moments, it had to be the classic scene from the original novel where one of his underlings rushed out to feed himself to Ariel so the protagonist could show off and slap faces.
In a situation like this, if a blond villain like him suddenly appeared, no matter how he thought about it, this could only end badly.
The protagonist would definitely think he had come on purpose to enjoy her humiliation, which would only make her hate him even more!
...
In truth, Muen had arrived long ago. He had gotten here even earlier than Ariel.
He simply had not hurried into the academy.
Instead, he strolled around the streets nearby, looking here and there, buying some snacks along the way, including a few grilled skewers. Only then, when there were not many people at the academy gate, had he prepared to go in.
And then, at that exact moment, Ariel stepped out of her carriage.
And those idiots Aemon and the others just happened to block her path.
Then, within only a few minutes, more than a hundred bystanders who just so happened to be passing by had appeared at the academy gates.
In no time at all, the entire entrance had been packed so tightly that not even water could pass through.
Seriously, where did all of you come from?
The academy gate had clearly been empty just a moment ago!
Was this some kind of protagonist domain expansion where the main character absolutely had to have an audience every time she showed off?
Muen could not help grumbling inwardly.
Grumble as he might, the instant all eyes turned toward him, the muscle memory in this body still kicked in.
At once, he suppressed every trace of awkwardness on his face and put on a standard amiable smile, nodding politely to the crowd.
But even though he personally thought he was devastatingly handsome, and although there was not the slightest malice in his smile...at least eighty percent of the girls present still immediately looked away.
“This is bad. If you make eye contact with Muen Campbell, you will get pregnant.”
“Ah, I forgot to smear soot on my face. What am I supposed to do? I heard that as long as he takes a fancy to you, someone will knock you out at night, send you to the Duke’s estate, and then he will do all sorts of things to you.”
“Become the Duchess? What a joke. He already has a betrothal. He is just toying with you. I heard there are already enough girls he has played with to fill an entire class!”
“You know that famous suicide tower on campus? They say half the girls who jumped from it were pitiful girls abandoned by Muen Campbell.”
“...”
Listening to the increasingly outrageous whispers passing among the girls, Muen could not help twitching at the corners of his mouth.
What sort of supreme playboy was this?
From the sound of it, he had already reached the level where both heaven and man were outraged, the kind of menace who could get flattened by a furious honest citizen in a dump truck the moment he stepped out the door.
Although the former Muen Campbell really had been a scumbag, there was no way he had been outrageous to this degree.
At most, he had merely flirted with a few girls.
If he had truly been so awful that he drove students to suicide, then even as the Duke’s son, the academy would never have turned a blind eye.
“So this is what they mean by three men making a tiger. Rumors really are terrifying.”
Muen sighed.
He knew full well that changing the impression other people had of him would be a long and difficult road...
But a journey of a thousand miles began with a single step.
Since he had already resolved to change, then he had to start now.
Thinking that, Muen stepped forward and walked toward the center of the storm.
...
“Well, well, Muen Campbell. You really did come.”
At the sight of Muen, Ariel was not especially surprised.
If anything, this was exactly what she had expected.
After all, he was the one who had ordered it, so naturally he would come in person to watch his enemy suffer humiliation.
Just as he had always done in the past.
But she would never let that happen.
“What is this? Just like before, you do not have the ability to act yourself, so you only dare send your lackey dogs to bite people? You are still just as useless as ever.” Ariel sneered.
“That really is a hurtful thing to say.”
“But is it not fitting for you?”
“...It is.”
Calmly accepting Ariel’s mockery, Muen walked to stand before her.
Then, placing one hand over his chest, he smiled with utmost courtesy and said:
“Good morning, Miss Ariel.”
“Huh?”
Ariel froze.
Her eyes widened as if she had seen a ghost.
What had she just seen?
What had she just heard?
That Muen Campbell had actually saluted her.
That he had actually greeted her.
His first sentence had not been, “You lowly filthy bastard, why do you not crawl out of here?”
Was she dreaming?
She sucked in a breath from the pain of pinching herself. No, this was not a dream!
Muen Campbell had actually spoken like a human being!
“You seem very surprised that I greeted you.”
Muen did his best to keep the twitch at the corner of his mouth under control as he said,
“Even though I greeted you the same way at the banquet before, did I not?”
Ah, that was true. At the banquet, he greeted her like this too.
...Which only made it even stranger!
For someone to put on an act and conceal his true nature for this long, what kind of prank could possibly explain it?
He had to be plotting something even bigger!
“What exactly are you trying to do, Muen Campbell?!” Ariel demanded sternly.
“...I am not trying to do anything. I was simply greeting you.”
“Do not think you can fool me. I have already seen through too many of your schemes! Ah, right, the way you looked at Lia back then was definitely wrong. You were clearly pretending to behave yourself so I would lower my guard, and then you could make a move on innocent, naive, big-breasted Lia, was that not it? I am telling you now, I will absolutely never let your evil scheme succeed! Lia’s big breasts belong to me alone!”
Ariel glared fiercely at Muen, like a mother hen protecting her chick.
“I already told you, I was just greeting you. You are overthinking it.”
Muen shook his head with a bitter smile.
Then he stopped paying attention to Ariel, whose thought process was far too complicated, and turned around.
“Young Master Muen.”
The moment they saw him turn, Aemon and the few people behind him immediately straightened their backs and put on flattering smiles.
“What are you doing here?” Muen asked.
“We are issuing a challenge to Ariel Bugarde.”
Aemon answered loudly and energetically:
“To wash away the humiliation we suffered last semester!”
So you are a fourth-year challenging a second-year, and you do not think that is humiliating in itself?
Muen pressed a hand to his forehead with a bitter laugh.
He genuinely could not tell whether this group had infected the former host with their stupidity, or whether the former host had infected them.
No wonder that in the original novel, despite Muen Campbell’s family background, he had not even managed to last twenty chapters.
“Did anyone instruct you to do this?” Muen asked.
“No. We volunteered!”
Aemon lifted his head and puffed out his chest, answering with obvious pride.
Aemon was merely the second son of a viscount.
He knew very well that if he wanted to rise in life, then his only option was to cling tightly to the thigh of Muen, the Duke’s son.
So he had long since made up his mind to become an excellent lackey.
And what was an excellent lackey?
Was it the kind who needed his master to issue every order personally?
No.
An excellent lackey had to understand his master’s intentions and learn to find trouble to do on his own.